1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to a camera arranged to be capable of receiving signals transmitted from a device for supplying information.
2. Description of the Related Art:
The inventor of the invention of the present application has previously proposed, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,097,283, an information supply device which is arranged in combination with a camera body to be capable of inputting all at once information on a plurality of control items such as an AE (automatic exposure control) mode, an AF (automatic focusing) mode, a film transport mode, etc. According to the method proposed, a bar code printed on an external information recording medium is read out by means of an information reading-and-supply device which includes a bar-code reader, and the bar-code information read out is supplied to the camera body through optical communication. Upon receipt of the bar-code information, on the side of the camera body, a camera control pattern corresponding to the bar-code information is read out from a memory circuit, and the AE mode, the AF mode and the film transport mode are determined accordingly.
The bar-code information has no concrete control pattern for the AE, AF and film transport modes and is nothing more than trigger information for deriving, from the memory circuit disposed within the camera body, one of various control patterns stored therein. Therefore, the bar-code information can be arranged in a small amount.
Meanwhile, another method has been proposed as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,733. According to that method, a bar code printed on an external information recording medium is read out by an information reading-and-supply device including a bar-code reader, and the bar-code information read out is supplied to a camera body as an electrical signal. In that instance, the bar-code information is arranged to show a concrete control value to be employed for the AE or AF mode.